Witch Bandora
is an evil witch and arch-nemesis of the Zyurangers. Due to her contract with Dai-Satan, Bandora possesses seemingly limitless magical powers including energy blasts, teleportation, and the ability to enlarge her monsters by invoking underworld spirits to infuse the Dora Monsters with their power upon throwing her Dorascepter into the ground. Bandora especially hates dinosaurs and children and frequently goes out of her way to harm them or use them as pawns in her various plans. Like most Sentai arch-enemies, she gets especially furious when her plans fail, often lashing out at her underlings and developing stress headaches. She also at times displays a humorous eccentricity; breaking out into her theme song, Dora! The Song of Witch Bandora whenever things go in her favor or going on a crash diet to the point that she couldn't even properly use her magic. Biography Early Life 170 million years ago, Bandora was originally Queen of the Dahl Tribe, but tragedy struck when her son Kai smashed some Tyrannosaurus eggs. In retalliation, Kai was killed. Swearing revenge, Bandora sold her soul to Dai-Satan for great magical powers but in doing so lost all memory of Kai. With her newfound power, Bandora waged war on the other tribes and the dinosaurs they worshiped. Although she almost drove the dinosaurs into extinction, she was stopped by the Guaridan Beasts. As punishment for her crimes, Bandora and her followers Grifforzer, Totpat, Bookback, and Pleprechaun were exiled on the planet Nemesis. In the event that Bandora may one day get free, the five tribes selected their greatest warriors to enter a state of suspended animation. These warriors included Yamato Tribe Prince Geki, Sharma Tribe Knight Goushi, Etoffe Tribe Knight Dan, Dime Tribe Knight Boi, and Lithia Tribe Princess Mei. Their tombs were left in the case of Mysterious Sage Barza. Zyuranger Revival In the year 1992, a Japanese space mission to the planet Nemesis led to the accidental release of Bandora and her minions. Seeking to pick things off where they left off, Bandora launched a full-scale assault on Tokyo. Hating children, Bandora also kidnapped two children that were part of the space mission and left them for her minions to torture. This prompted Barza to revive the warriors of the five tribes to put a stop to her. Brought up to date on what was going on, the five were given Dino Bucklers they could become the Zyurangers, avatars for the Guardian Beasts on Earth and the only force powerful enough to oppose Bandora. This led to battles against two of Bandora's creations, the Dora Monsters known as Dora Skelton and Dora Titan. Ultimately the monsters fell thanks to their new powers an abilities. Dora Titan, in particular, fell when Geki summoned the Guardian Beast Tyrannosaurus to destroy the gigantic monster. With her initial attack on Earth a failure, Bandora was forced to retreat to the moon where she launched subsequent attacks on Earth and the Zyurangers. When the Zyurangers later attempted to claim the Legendary Weapons from the Land of Despair, Bandora sought to prevent them from doing so. Knowing that those who spend more than 24 hours in the Land of Despair would turn into stone, Bandora trapped a boy named Hiroshi and his mother there as well as Dora Minotaur to slow up the heroes. When the Zyurangers succeeded in their quest, Bandora grew in size and tried to destroy the Land of Despair with her bare hands, but the heroes still managed to escape with their new weapons. The witch suffered another set back when she sent Dora Sphinx to Earth to terrorize children. During this battle, the Zyurangers were able to summon the Guardian Beasts and merged them together to form Daizyuzin, giving them a considerable edge whenever Bandora used her magic to enlarge her monsters. Early Schemes Bandora continued to send her Dora Monsters to Earth, either to destabilize society, terrorize children, or attack the Zyurangers directly. Some of these early monsters included the soul stealing Dora Goblin, and the glutenous Dora Circe. The latter was summoned simply because Bandora was sufering body-image issues and wanted to take out her dieting woes on those who ate whatever they liked. Learning that the people of Dalos Island were entrusted with the protection of the last two dinosaur eggs on Earth, Bandora vowed to destroy them and make dinosaurs extinct once and for all. To this end, she sent her new monster, Dora Cockatrice to go after Apelo Tribe Prince Euro, who knew where the eggs were hidden. Although the Zyurangers prevented Bandora from destroying the eggs, they were lost at sea in the ensuing battle. Later, Bandora attempted to enslave the Lamp Fairy Gin and use his magical powers against the Zyurangers. To this end, she destroyed his magic lamp and trapped him within one of her own making, turning him into the evil Dora Gin. With the help of some local children, the Zyurangers restored Gin's original lamp and freed him from Bandora's control. Tired of her lazy warriors, Bandora next selected Dora Argus for her next scheme, but this monster did not fare any better than the previous ones. Not long after this, Bandora grew concerned that she was growing older and sent Dora Ladon to steal the youth of children. Knowing that Mei was the only Zyuranger with the power to destroy Dora Ladon, Bandora attempted to remove her from the equation with an apple that put her to sleep. Unfortunately, Mei fought free from this spell and slew the monster, foiling yet another one of the evil witch's plans. When the Fairy Dondon applied to be Pleplechaun's assistant, Bandora rejected the buffoon. However, when the dimwitted Dondon befriended a rebellious young boy named Toshio, Bandora grew them in size and convinced them to go on a rampage. This scheme was also foiled by the Zyurangers when they appealed to Dondon and Toshio's inherent goodness. Soon after this, Bandora kidnapped a 10-year-old boy named Shigeru and forced him to forge a powerful sword called Durandol for her warrior, Dora Knight to use against the Zyurangers. This plan fell apart when the Zyurangers learned the sword could not harm the person who forged it and used this against Dora Knight. She faired just as poorly when she sent Dora Endos to try and infect people with a sneezing virus. Burai When the gnome known as Ryota sought to free Yamato Tribe Knight Burai, yet another warrior put in suspended animation, Bandora sought to help seeing this as a means of defeating the Zyurangers. Despite opposition from Barza, the Zyurangers succeeded in awakening Burai, and were shocked when he vowed to destroy them, particularly their leader Geki. This was because Burai, Geki's brother, vowed revenge against the Yamato Tribe for killing their father and making Geki their prince. Seeking to exploit this hatred, Bandora gave Burai the powerful Devil Sword Hellfriede, knowing that it would also drive him mad. She then summoned her secret agent Lamy back to Earth to recover the lost Dinosaur Eggs. Succeeding in recovering those eggs, Bandora began plotting the destruction of Daizyuzin. While trying to save the dinosaur eggs, the Zyurangers lost them once again. To make matters worse, Bandora's minions lured Daizyuzin on the day of an eclipse cutting the massive guardian from his power source. The Guardian Beasts were then banished below the Earth where Bandora presumed they would be destroyed. However, the witch overstepped herself when she decided she no longer needed Burai and sent him back to Earth. Feeling betrayed and learning that he was living on borrowed time, Burai summoned his own Guardian Beast Dragon Caesar to go on a rampage. The ensuing battle led to the destruction of Hellfriede. In his right mind again, Burai pledged allegiance to the Zyurangers, giving the heroes yet another advantage over Bandora. Dai-Satan With Burai on the Zyuranger's side, Bandora suffered continued defeats. Her monsters Dora Pixie, Dora Tortoise, , Dora Tarantula, Dora Boogaranan, and Dora Guzzler were all utter failures. Seeking to get an edge against her foes, Bandora began digging for Dokiita clay which allowed her to create more powerful Golems and a new monster named Dora Franke. Although the Zyurangers obtained Thunder Stingers to defeat the Golems, Dora Frank proved to be a much more powerful enemy. To make matters worse, Bandora managed to capture enough children to power her Satan-Tower and summon her master, Dai-Satan, to give Dora Franke even more power. However, Bandora's scheme was foiled when the Daizuyzin merged with Dragon Ceaser and Beast Knight God King Brachion to become Kyukyoku Gattai Ultimate Daizyuzin. In this form, the Zyuranger's guardians were able to destroy Satan Franke and drive away Dai-Satan. One silver lining to this was that Bandora learned that Burai was living on borrowed time, something that he kept a secret until this moment. Seeking to exploit Geki's love for his brother, Bandora next sent Dora Narcissus to Earth, claiming the creature had the power to save Burai's life. This made Geki reluctant to destroy the monster, but ultimately his teammates reminding him of his duties and that Bandora could not be trusted and Dora Narcissus was destroyed. This is followed by a string of further failures from her creatures Dora Laygor, a mystical spinning wheel, Dora Ninja, Dora Ganrock, and Dora Kinkaku. In this latter battle, Bandora failed to stop the Zyurangers from finally recovering the long lost dinosaur eggs, leaving them in the care of King Brachion. After this, Bandora had yet more failures with Dora Silkis, and Monster Goda. Death of Burai With Burai's time on Earth running out, Bandora sought to eliminate him as a threat. To this end, she had Dora Gansaku to use its shape-shifting powers to pose as Dragon Ceaser and go on a rampage. Thinking his Guardian Beast was out of control, Burai left the Lapless Room -- A timeless domain where Burai could prolonge his time on Earth -- allowing Bandora to find its location and destroy it. As the Zyurangers were divided between defending the city from Dora Gansaku and trying to find an elixir that could save Burai, Bandora reveled in using Dora Gansaku's rampage to turn the public against the Zyurangers. Although Bandora succeeded in rushing along Burai's death, this was a pyrrhic victory at best as the Zyurangers destroyed Dora Gansaku, restored their reputations, and Burai was able to pass along his weapons and control over Dragon Ceaser over to his brother, Geki. Bandora learned that the Zyurangers were still a legitimate threat when her next monster, the seemingly indestructible Dora Antaeus, was destroyed thanks to Geki's newfound powers. Her later monsters did not fare so well either with Dora Chimaera, Dora Unicorn, and a team of Zyuranger impostors. The Final Battle Soon, Dia-Satan returned to Earth, resurrecting Bandora's son Kai to use as his emissary to bring about a "Dino-Apocalypse" which would see the two dinosaur eggs destroyed and thus, eliminate Daizyuzin by stripping him of his power. Now remembering who her son, Bandora kidnapped some children and brainwashed them in helping Kai pilot his mecha Dora Talos and use it against the Zyurangers. In the ensuing battle, the Zyurangers were defeated and their Guardian Beasts banished to another dimension. The heroes were about to give up when the spirit of Burai encouraged them to continue fighting and showed them the way to this other dimension to save the Guardian Beasts. With their full power back, the Zyurangers destroyed Dora Talos, killing Kai in the process. Storming Bandora's palace, the heroes watched as the witch shed a tear over losing her son for a second time. Unfortunately for Bandora, her tears were all it would take to strip her of her power. Unable to defend herself, Bandora and her minions were banished by Daizyuzen once more, this time their prison sent to drive into space. Surprisingly, Bandora was perfectly fine with her exile, as Grifforzer and Lamy had a son, Grifforzer, Jr. which she was able to dote over. Akibaranger as Ancient Witch ©Na, with the Bandora Gang (Totpat, Pleprechuan, Bookback, Grifforzer) in the Super ©Na Series version of Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger.]] When ©Na replaces the Super Sentai Series with her own Super ©Na Series, she takes Bandora's place as Ancient Witch ©Na in her version of Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger. Video Game appearances Zyuranger video game Witch Bandora is the villain who is confronted at the end of the fifth and last stage of the ''Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger'' video game. She fights against Tyranno Ranger Geki, who is controlled by the player. Bandora also appears in a trivia minigame where she asks the player a question related to the TV series. Notes *In a 2014 interview, director Koichi Sakamoto stated that the film Kyoryuger vs. Go-Busters, which saw the return of the Zyurangers among the past Kyoryu Super Sentai, was originally to feature a daughter of Witch Bandora. However, this plan fell through and the character was replaced with Neo-Grifforzer.https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/獣電戦隊キョウリュウジャーVSゴーバスターズ_恐竜大決戦!_さらば永遠の友よ **This idea is strikingly similar to the Power Rangers 15th anniversary special Once A Ranger, which featured Rita Repulsa's son, Thrax. Since Koichi Sakamoto worked on Power Rangers Operation Overdrive as an executive producer, this may not be coincidental. *Witch Bandora is one of the Sentai Final Villains to not die at the end of their series (along with Daimaou, Long, Arch Priest Gajah, the Emperor of Darkness Z, and Dogranio Yaboon). **She is also the only one among them who does not have a monster form. *Her name Bandora could be inspired by the Greek deity Pandora. The release of the Bandora Gang from the seal might be a reference to the opening of Pandora’s jar (often mistakenly called “Pandora’s box”). In Greek, the word “pithos” means “jar.” The vase-like imprisonment that Bandora and her minions were placed inside of in the finale resembles a typical pithos. Incidentally, Machiko Soga also portayed a character named from . Appearances See Also References Category:Sentai Villains Category:Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger Category:Female Sentai Villains Category:Main Sentai Villains Category:Bandora Gang Category:Monster Enlargers Category:Sentai Villains Who Became Good Category:Masterminds Category:Sentai Final Villains Who Are Still Alive